The competition authorities in theUS have granted approval for Nortel Networks to sell its significant IP portfolio to rival companies for an estimated $4.5 billion… Read more about it here.

Players that have shown an interest in the 6000 or so patents and applications include: Research in Motion, Apple and surprisingly Google….in so far as these patents seem to predominately relate to wireless technology Google either just acquired these patents to prevent the competition from getting them or they are planning to use these to litigate against their rivals…..this should get interesting….